Thomas A. Stewart players tackle a Huron Heights player in the first half as the Griffons hosted the Warriors in the Metro Bowl junior play-in game at TAS on Wednesday, November 15, 2017 in Peterborough, Ont. TAS won 22-21 in overtime to advance to the quarter-finals. Jason Bain/Peterborough Examiner/Postmedia Network

The Thomas A. Stewart Griffins junior football team had to pull out all the stops to advance in Metro Bowl play Wednesday afternoon.

The Griffins twice rallied from 14-point deficits in the second half to force overtime where they prevailed 22-21 on a rouge over Newmarket's Huron Heights Warriors at the Thomas A. Stewart Athletic Field.

The Warriors had a touchdown called back in overtime for an illegal formation, only six men on the line, which opened the door for the Griffins. Starting on the Warriors' 35, Robin French ran for two first downs. On third down and four yards to go Max Levasseur kicked the ball through the end zone for the win.

The Griffins advance to the Metro Bowl quarter-final where they'll face the winner of Thursday's LOSSA final between Courtice's Holy Trinity and Oshawa's Paul Dwyer. A date and location for the quarter-final is still to be be determined.

The Griffins covered 70 yards on their final drive of regulation time to score the tying major. French covered 50 yards on three runs and Levasseur caught Daniel Milburn's pass to get to the 20-yard line. The Griffins ran several gadget plays in the game including Emmet Shebib scooping up the ball on a fumblerooski to get them to the one-yard line where Milburn scored on a quarterback keep. French hit his third convert to tie it with 1:39 left in the fourth quarter.

"They're not trick plays if you run them on a regular basis," said Griffins head coach Jeff Challice. "We've run that play several times and scored touchdowns on it this year and last year."

"That's one of the few times we've had to come back the last couple of years," Milburn said. "It's a hard thing to do and tough on us when we have to do plays that don't usually get called but we figured it out and did it. We practise them a lot but you don't think you're going to run them."

The undefeated Griffins weren't used to being behind. They scored with six seconds left in the first half to cut the Warriors lead to 14-7. Noah Thompson took a hand-off from Milburn and tossed to Riley Riel on a play that covered 25 yards.

Will Corry scored on a 34-yard counter to put Huron Heights up 21-7 with 7:56 left in the third quarter. It was his second TD, the other on a six-yard run. Emilio Neves had their opening score on a 38-yard run in the first quarter. Corry kicked three converts.

With 8:07 left in the fourth quarter, Milburn pitched the ball to French who found Levasseur with a pass he extended into a 40-yard score to draw TASSS within a TD.

"We couldn't be prouder of our team" Challice said. "We never gave up. We gave up a couple of long plays to their offence but the defence never gave up and stopped them when it mattered at the end. We made a few mistakes early and they're a heck of a football team. They run the ball hard and have some great athletes. We were lucky to still be in the game."

"It was very much like last year's Kawartha final against Adam Scott when we came back in the fourth quarter," said Griffins player Tyler Alleway. "It was a tough game but we won it. We came back and I'm proud of the team. The coaches and the captains stepped up and said it's not over until the fat lady sings."

The Warriors gained three first downs in overtime before Neves punched it in from four yards only to have the score nullified by the illegal formation penalty.

"We audibled and our tight end decided to move out of position," said Warriors head coach Paul Placko. "Once he's set he can't move and he did. That was the penalty. That's the way football works. On any given Sunday stuff happens and that did, unfortunately."

They got the ball back to the Griffins one but couldn't push it in on their final down.

"If we can't get a yard, we don't deserve to win," Placko said. "They had a couple of flea-flicker plays that were interesting but they worked. Hat's off to them for those plays. They got them out of a deep hole. We played well for three-quarters of the game. There were just a few spots where we fell asleep."